Archives

The Obama Tax Plan: Is Barack Obama Plotting To Use Class Warfare As A Tool To Win The 2012 Election?

By Michael Snyder, on September 20th, 2011

Barack Obama has revealed his tax plan and it is a doozy. It would raise taxes by 1.5 trillion dollars over the next decade. Most of these tax increases would hit the wealthy, and Obama keeps insisting that it is time for them “to pay their fair share”. Of course Obama knows that the Republicans will never go for this. You see, what is going on is that Obama is laying a trap. First, he laid out a 447 billion dollar “jobs plan” that contained all kinds of goodies for the poor and the middle class. Now he has introduced a massive tax plan which specifically targets millionaires in order to pay for it. The Republicans are falling right into the trap, because instead of introducing fundamental reforms to our tax system, the Republicans have chosen to defend the status quo. Right now our current tax system allows big corporations and the ultra-wealthy to get away with bloody murder, and the Republicans have put themselves into the position of having to defend that. This is exactly what Barack Obama wants. Obama is plotting to use class warfare as a tool to divide Americans and win the 2012 election. There is no way in the world that his current plan is going to get through Congress. What he is doing now is “setting the table” for the 2012 campaign season.

One of the cornerstones of the Obama tax plan is a new minimum tax rate on those that make more than $1 million a year. Obama says that the goal is to make sure that millionaires don’t pay a smaller rate than middle-income taxpayers do.

Obama is making a smart political move by going after less than 1 percent of the population and proposing tax breaks and lots of goodies for everyone else. This puts Republicans in the position of having to play “grinch” because of their obsession with “not raising taxes”.

There are a whole lot more low-income and middle-income voters out there than there are wealthy voters. In addition, nearly the entire nation is pretty much disgusted with Wall Street at this point.

So is now the time to attack the rich?

Obama apparently believes that he can get a lot of traction with this stuff.

In fact, Obama seems to already be in campaign mode. Just check out what Obama had to say about his new plan….

You know, that makes a lot of sense. I know that I am certainly disturbed that I pay more taxes than GE does.

The Republicans are playing right into all of this. Instead of crying out for reform of a system that is fundamentally unjust and completely broken, they just keep defending it.

If the current tax code was completely thrown out, tax rates could be lowered for all of us and revenues could be increased at the same time.

Comparing the current tax code to Swiss cheese is not quite accurate, because the current tax code actually has more loopholes than it has substance. If you know what you are doing and you have the resources to play the game, you can drive a fleet of armored trucks through the holes in the tax code.

The sad thing is that it would not take too much imagination to eliminate the personal income tax altogether. There was no personal income tax for most of U.S. history, and we could certainly operate the government without one.

But instead of getting the creative, the Republicans have decided to draw a line in the sand and defend the status quo to the bitter end.

What a stupid, stupid thing to do.

Even though his approval rating recently hit a new low, Barack Obama may just be able to use the “politics of division” to worm his way back into the White House once again in 2012.

Do the stupid Republicans not see what he is doing?

Obama’s plan basically involves three steps…..

#1) Propose a “jobs plan” that contains all sorts of juicy tax cuts for the middle class, but that also contains measures that Barack Obama knows will never, ever get approved by Congress.

#2) Propose a “tax plan” that contains heavy new taxes on the wealthy that Barack Obama knows will never, ever get approved by Congress.

#3) Blame the Republicans for the failure of the “jobs plan” and tell poor and middle class Americans that it failed because Republicans are opposed to having the wealthy pay their “fair share” of taxes.

In another shrewd move, Barack Obama has trotted out Warren Buffett to sell his new plan. In fact, Obama is calling his millionaire tax the “Buffett Rule”. Millions of Americans will see Warren Buffett standing next to Obama and will actually be convinced that some wealthy Americans are actually eager to pay more taxes.

Mr. Obama, in a bit of political salesmanship, will call his proposal the “Buffett Rule,” in a reference to Warren E. Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained repeatedly that the richest Americans generally pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than do middle-income workers, because investment gains are taxed at a lower rate than wages.

Not that Buffett does not make some good points. For example, according to Buffett, he was taxed at an effective tax rate of 17.4 percent for 2010, while many of his employees were taxed at a rate more than double that.

So is that fair?

Of course not.

Our current tax code is absolutely ridiculous. It massively soaks the middle class and small businesses and it greatly favors those that can hire an army of tax lawyers.

The Republicans should be pushing to abolish the current tax code and to shut down the IRS. The system we have now is inherently flawed and cannot be redeemed.

But instead, the Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. They must now defend absolutely laughable tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.

The new “Buffett Rule” would only affect 0.3 percent of all taxpayers. Obama hopes to pin the economic frustrations of the bottom 90 percent on them and on the Republicans.

Sadly, this is how politics is played in America. Instead of working for the good of the country, Obama has his eyes on the next election.

An article in USA Today explained some of the other reasons why the Obama tax plan has absolutely no chance of success….

Obama also would eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that benefit oil and gas companies, hedge fund managers, and corporate jet owners — ideas that have previously been rejected by congressional Republicans. His plan to limit deductions and exclusions for people with income above $250,000 has even been rejected by many Democrats in the past.

So then why is Obama even bothering to propose it?

Well, as mentioned above, Obama is “setting the table” for the 2012 election. Even the folks in the mainstream media can see this a mile away.

The Obama proposal has little chance of becoming law unless Republican lawmakers bend. But by focusing on the wealthiest Americans, the president is sharpening the contrast between Republicans and Democrats with a theme he can carry into his bid for re-election in 2012.

In an article for Time, Massimo Calabresi described the political motivation behind Obama’s proposal in this manner….

Politically, it’s more complicated. Clearly both sides reach their base with their message. Fair share is straight-up union talk, and will resonate with the Democrats whom Obama wants to solidify and energize ahead of a year of tough economic wrangling. Class warfare opens wealthy wallets during campaign season and taps the active, enthusiastic and antigovernment Tea Party movement, which sees socialism under every Democrat’s bed.

Republicans should be able to see what is happening.

They should be able to understand that defending ridiculous tax loopholes for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations is not a winning strategy.

But right now, the Republicans are falling right into Obama’s trap.

What the Republicans should be doing is introducing a bold, new vision for how government finances will work in this country.

Sadly, that will probably never happen. You see, the truth is that the Democrats and the Republicans both believe in the current system. Yeah, Republicans want taxes a little lower than the Democrats do most of the time, but you don’t exactly see too many Republicans running around calling for the tax code and the IRS to be abolished, do you?

It is time that someone told the American people the truth.

Our tax code is fundamentally unjust.

Our tax code destroys small businesses.

Our tax code makes us much less competitive in the global marketplace.

Our tax code transfers wealth from the American people to big banks and big corporations.

Our tax code is a horrific waste of time, energy and national resources.

Our tax code encourages behaviors that are counter-productive.

Our tax code is used by the government to pursue social engineering goals.

Out tax code is so vast and so complicated that no ordinary American could ever actually understand the whole thing.

Our tax code greatly favors the largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Our tax code is an insult to our founding fathers and it is the kind of thing they tried to prevent when they put together the U.S. Constitution.

The Republicans are foolish when they defend the status quo.

The answer to Barack Obama is not George W. Bush.

The answer to Barack Obama is 1776.

Using class warfare to once again divide the American people may help Barack Obama in the next election, but it will do nothing to solve the problems this nation is facing.

Meanwhile, our tax system will continue to produce some truly ridiculous results.

According to Forbes, the 400 richest Americans pay an average tax rate of just 18%.

A lot of you that are reading this (including myself) pay a much higher rate than that.

That is just plain stupid.

Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue, but in 2009 corporate taxes accounted for just 6.6 percent.

In a previous article, I noted some of the big corporations that make a ton of money and yet pay less than zero in taxes….

What U.S. corporations are able to get away with is absolutely amazing.

Of course he is. That’s why his shills such as Bloomberg and Jerry Brown are not telling about possible riots, but hinting at riots. Class warfare from politics is soon going to hit the pavement. This is what Obama wants for 2012, to polarize the nation so much that he’ll still have a solid voting bloc on one side.

PUNKY BREWSTER

But the question then becomes, who pays for the new spending, the disappearing middle class or the poor, who, the last time I looked, had not a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Time for the greedy wealthy elites to pay up! They have sucked and stolen untold riches out of the economy long enough!

PUNKY BREWSTER

I think you are way off base here. In terms of focusing solely on the politics of it, yes campaign season has begun as Obama knows that the teabaggers would never go for such a plan. But the larger point is being missed here. And that larger point is that the nation is ungovernable at this stage. Any new spending has to be paid for by someone and last time I looked, taxing the poor would yield about as much of a good result as skydiving without a parachute. So, all of this really depends upon one’s point of view doesn’t it?

Straight veteran

Outstanding analysis! Very well thought out comments. It is a depressing reality of the economic/political situation we are facing in this country.

Rowell

No sense in blaming Obama, just like it’s no sense to blame Bush. They, and every other “elected” official are merely puppets for the corporatacracy. They’ve received their marching orders, and are simply following their orders. You want to blame someone, blame the banks, the big corporate sponsors, the Federal Reserve. They’re the ones that make the policy that gets piped through the legislature.

Beleiving that our “leaders” are working in the best interest of the country and the people is like beleiving that wrestling is real.

mondobeyondo

Perhaps Gary2 is happy now that Obama plans to tax the rich…

Gary2

damn straight I am.

Tim

LOL!

http://www.placeofrefuge2012.com Sheila

That figures, the whole point of the regressive income tax is to create “class warfare”.

The question for me is, how do we go from this insanely convoluted government back to 1776 — because it is clear to me that we need a true American Revolution. The inertia of 300 million people, many just trying to scratch out a living is the biggest obstacle. Maybe what it needs to have it happen IS the big EMP attack. Bring it on.

JD

Michael there is CLASS WARFARE going on in this country. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. Now I want to make clear that not all of the wealthy in this country are bad. Im mostly refering to those small businesses that employ alot of people. I know a millionaire that owns a restraunt and a convience store that employs over 75 people. If you raise his taxes, he may have to let some people go. My dad and I are independents with mostly conservative leanings. However when we watched Obamas speech yesterday when he said he would do away with the Conservation Resource Program or CRP I have to admit it warmed my heart. CRP is a government welfare program that pays millionaire farmers and ranchers not to farm and graze their land. These ranchers live all around us out here and they look down on us as small and puny. They drive around in new tractors and pickups that im sure was helped paid for by the CRP payments. If this part of his bill can pass, it would open up land for us to expand. The rich exploit us by charging high hay prices and grazing rent. Im sick of seeing my dad and I walking around with holes in our clothes and when theives stole our lambs it set us back hard. Im sick and tired of the repubs telling us that if we raise the taxes on the rich corporations they wont invest in this country. BULLSHIT!! You know as well as I do they still outsource our jobs to countries that pay slave wages. The rich want to lower our standard of living so F them lets lower theirs. I think its high time to spread the pain around. If I fell for Obamas bait then so be it. All I know if he can get rid of corporate welfare and CRP payments I may just vote for the man. Gary2 Im with you all the way on this buddy. BTW, if any of you Rushbots or Fox conservatives can convince me that the rich need to keep their taxes low I would love to hear it. But im sure the homeless and single mothers that cant heat their homes or feed their kids wont give a crap.

PUNKY BREWSTER

JD,

The class warfare argument is always trotted out by people who know that they have skated in, on, and through the system of tax breaks, and subsidies that the government doles out regularly. Take Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palins twin sister from different parents. On top of her huge Congressional salary and benefits, she also receives farm subsidies. People who are literally stockpiling money and they are the ones whining and crying about “class warfare”. If sick to the stomach was fatal, only the top 1 percent and the stupids at the bottom of the economic ladder who someday think that they are going to be in the top 1 percent would still be alive. But as it is always said, everyone ends up getting what the majority deserves………

Texar

All he has ever done is campaign and divide. And point fingers.

mark

Yes we do have an unfair tax system. Some large corporations pay little or nothing and 40 something percent of the public pay nothing and recieve checks from the government. I think that everyone should pay something towards the costs of running this country. If we replace the IRS and the personal income tax with a national sales tax and shrink the government at the same time, this would be a winning combination. The states should follow this lead and get rid of state personal income taxes. Since people are all paying a sales tax without any rebates to anyone, we would all have a dog in the fight as to how much government spends. Since people are would be already paying taxes for living here, residential property taxes should get tossed out also. Business can continue to pay property tax and corporations should pay a fair amount of income taxes with out all of the deductions now allowed with a lower tax rate. Lets make things simple and lower costs so that the world would want to invest in the US once again. If we cut spending and raise taxes our depression we go deeper. If we increase spending and raise taxes our depression will go deeper. As I said before the solution is to cut spending and have a simple tax system that everyone will pay a lower amount. Another thing that needs to be brought up in relation to cuts in government spending. Wages and benifits to the government class need to be cut. Working for the government should not be riding on the gravy train. Just laying off government workers is not going to be enough. Many of the bosses need to go. A lot of rules and regulations need to be removed from the books. When it comes to the huge debt that has been racked up, maybe the super rich will need to take a hair cut on government bonds around the worid. A little debt forgiven by the likes of George Sorros types might go a long way towards a reset in the world economy. No, that will not happen as the rich progresives just want higher taxes from us and governments to borrorw more money from them so that they can be paid more interest payments taken from the producers of the economy. Oh, I dont’t think that Congress will want to make the tax system simple and give up some power over us. We are so screwed, so much for good ideas that will work.

Gary2

Michael-for heavens sake-you know full well there is class warfare and the rich have won.

With the wealth so unevenly distributed and nothing resembling an even playing field the system is rigged in favor of the rich. The sole best predictor of being rich is the wealth of your parents.

Why is it class warfare when the poor want the rich to pay more but not class warfare when the rich get tax cuts and get bailed out?

3) Blame the Republicans for the failure of the “jobs plan” and tell poor and middle class Americans that it failed because Republicans are opposed to having the wealthy pay their “fair share” of taxes.

Your darn correct it is the scumbag republicans fault we are in this mess!!! Obama does not need to tell anyone that the republicans favor the rich, anyone with eyes can see that is true. What are their answer to every question???cut taxes on the rich, err job creators gag! We need to tax the rich because they have all the money. Michael-you did see the poverty stats released the other day I assume?

I think I need to go drop another job creator in the toilet.

Michael

LOL – I thought you would have been pleased that I did strongly point out that our tax system is fundamentally unjust.

Michael

Gary2

it is unjust. the rich pay way too little and need to pay their fair share. 15% capital gains for hedge fund billionaires???WTF??? Tax the millionaires and billionaires. Obama has a winning message in that and it would make a good bumper sticker.

http://goto.glocalnet.net/pdn/ Perdavid Nygren

I think your next president will be a woman, maybe Michelle Bachmann.

Gary2

To all low info rush listeners: I found this on the daily kos and its so true. You are the problem–teapublicans.

We hear Millionaires who host Radio shows brainwash their middle to low income listeners into falsely believing that Taxing the rich 3% more will be worse for the US Economy than what we have right now.

Millionaire Talk Show host can’t possibly be the ones chanting “don’t tax me 3% more” so they get their brainwashed audience to do it for the millionaires. Meanwhile we have crumbling bridges.
— I always envision Rush Limpba//s, Sean Insanity, GlennDUH Beck et al laughing AT their audience all the way to the bank.

(D) Here’s how brainwashed the Tea Party Individuals have become.
We have: crumbling Interstate bridges, police stations closing, fire departments closing, hospitals closing, schools closing, 23% cuts in food programs for women and their infant children (WIC) and many more but the Tea Party Individual chants “We can’t afford any of those things”

Hey Gary2, The spending on everything under the progresive Bush went way up. Seniors got drugs paid for and I sure did not see welfare go down. You democrats have been running most big city and state governments for years. I think that you should put most of you complaints towards your own party. Yes ,the republicans share in this mess also, but your party has run Congress most of the time since FDR. Your guy is still fighting the same wars and expanded one and started another. Obama and your party ran Congress for the first 2 years of his election and how did that go? You blame the repubs and all they have controled is the house since January of 2011. Remember Nancy and her comrades ran the house since 2007 and they spent,spent and spent. I have not heard you blame the democrats when they ran the house under the progresive Bush like you love to do about the republicans under the progresive Obama. It is always anothers fault, never your own party.

guido

You know, Gary, silly digs like, “Rush Limpba//s, Sean Insanity, GlennDUH Beck” do nothing for your argument than to make you look silly. It’s kind of childish, especially when there are valid points you COULD make about these individuals and the rest of the folks you trash instead of trying to discuss the facts in a rational manner.

Gary2

The United States has lived under the Bush Tax Cuts since 2001. 10 years later, the Poverty Rate has reached its highest level since it started being recorded in 1959
But an increase in the number of Americans living in Poverty is not all now we can to the “LOSS” of quality of living in the USA due to the Bush Tax Cuts:
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Crumbling/Closed Interstate Bridges
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Crumbling Interstate Roads
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Closed Police and Fire Departments
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Hospitals Shutting Down
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Air Pollution Rising
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Schools Shutting Down
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Uninsured in USA INCREASES
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Unemployment INCREASE
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Income Gap Between Rich and Poor Increases
– Your Bush Tax Cuts At Work = Stagnant US Economic Growth
Could these be Bumper Sticker ideas for the 2012 Election.

Guido

Waitaminute-are you saying tax cuts caused poverty? Because I thought our bad economic choices put us in this mess.

We’ve all been blowing our wads on new houses, new cars, and maintaining an unacceptably high standard of living compared to cashflow for years and years. We went from being a nation of money savers to a nation of spenders and then a nation of borrowers and spenders for several decades now.

Let’s not forget, the most popular economists, the Keynesians, have been preaching since the 1940s that we can spend ourselves into prosperity. We did it and it didn’t work.

Real wages and productivity did not rise, and that sucks, however we borrowed and spent to fill the gap. Government didn’t help, either. Government incompetence aside, we did this to ourselves. Now we’re paying for it.

And gov’t only made it worse. The Dems, led by Barney Frank, were happy to insure minorities got loans they couldn’t afford and resisted attempts to clean up the system 17 times. The mortgage brokers were happy to get commissions on loans they knew were bad.

How many thousands of illegal loans were made, those Linda Green loans? And didn’t the head of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines, say he saw approving minority loans as a form of reparations? They knew Fannie Mae was in trouble in 2005 and did nothing. In fact, Dodd, Obama, and Kerry were the top recipients of Fannie Mae contributions prior to 2008. They got hundreds of thousands from Fannie Mae, and ran cover for them to keep regulators off their backs-and we got the bill.

All those things you listed are the results of the cheap money flow being cut off. Crumbling roads? The states get the road money and spend it how they see fit. Closed fire and police depts? That’s also a local-level thing. Look at CA. They, and many other localities gave out golden parachutes and awesome wages to city bureaucrats and cops/FF and never considered the goose might stop laying golden eggs. Of course these things got cut. Whole towns have gone bankrupt and been forced to cut back or de-incorporate or unify with adjacent communities.

Hospitals shut down because emergency rooms are operate at a loss. In the Southwest, where I used to live, the illegals drove hospitals to close emergency rooms to survive, because illegals don’t pay their medical bills.

And this pre-dates Bush. These problems have been growing for years. Pre-Bush was not a paradise. In fact, I think Klinton and Bush Sr. did wonders for us, selling us out to NAFTA and GATT and the ideal of Free Trade, where we get to compete for our jobs with low-wage workers in Mexico and China.

Gary2

Productivity DID increase, however, wages stayed the same or got lower (wage stagnation) because the rich pocketed the money that should have went to the workers for the increased productivity. This is pretty much established fact.

This is why I do not see taxing the rich and spreading the wealth as theft. Its simply taking back what is rightfully ours (workers) in the first place.

Tax cuts are an economic choice, however, how they are applied are political IE-only taxing hedge fund managers at 15% because they call their income capital gains etc. We all know its income and that they are not paying their fair share.

I love those op eds form these assholes telling us we all have to share the pain as they jet off to their 100th home ion the Hamptons.

DEFCONStudios

Michael,

The Left and Right paradigm is a tool used to divide and conquer the population. Obama is a puppet by the Globalists and both parties work for the Globalists. Do not fall under the Divide and Conquer tactic used successfully against many Americans and those around the world.

Leonard

There is not much Obama can do by waving a sword at a tsunami!

There is not much a new president can do by firing a cannon ball into a tidal wave either!

Conclusion: things won’t get much better either way.

mondobeyondo

True. Obama is no Moses, that’s for sure.
He can’t part the Red Sea. He can’t even walk on water.
But I don’t know if any of his potential successors are any better.

Jesse

Michael,
Please run for President! This country needs the truth and someone who is able to effectively express it.

Michael

LOL

Unfortunately you need millions upon millions of dollars to even be a viable candidate.

My problem is that I would want to keep telling it like it is. That would frighten off the vast majority of the voters long before the election ever rolled around. :)

Michael

mark

Even if you had the money to run,who but a control freak would want the job. Unless of course someone enjoys power. One person cannot change Washington unless small government types replaced every existing member of Congress. Then some changes could happen and the new members would go back home for they would not desire power.

A Dodgy Bloke

I whole heartily agree with you on this one but nobody can accuse the Republicans of out of the box thinking. We need a flat tax across the board everyone pays a percentage of their income in taxes. So everybody can have skin in the game we have a percentage somewhere in the high 40’s of people who pay no tax at all. So they can ask for all the goodies they want knowing somebody else will pay for them, and nobody cares how tax money is spent.

Gary2

The U.S. is 64th in income inequality, right below Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Iran. For the last 30 years, more than 80 percent of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest one percent. And they now take home almost a quarter of all income in the United States, which is why Warren Buffett says that there is class warfare alright, but it is the rich that’s making the war and they are winning. As you pointed out, President Obama wants the top earners to go back and pay about what they paid under Clinton at which point – I’d like to remind people – that unemployment was 3.9 percent. Now, I don’t think that’s class warfare.”

On point radio program.

Gary2

Picture this analogy: a big fat guy with a crown on his head is perched on a gargantuan money bag of gold and cash- this represents top 1% in America today. GOP best solution for propelling economy forward is giving this same king more tax breaks. Anything wrong with this picture?
our current economic system is not class warfare- it’s massive slaughter of the poor and middle class.

Gary2

Asking the rich to pay a slightly higher but still historically low tax rate is “class warfare”, but when turning medicare into a groupon, no mention of class warfare.

When it comes to programs that the middle class needs, “we’re broke”, but when asking the rich to contribute a little more, no mention of we’re broke.

Cutting programs that the middle class needs is “shared sacrifice” or “hard choices”, but when asking the rich to contribute a little more, no mention of shared sacrifice or hard choices.

So Michael-answer the above questions before you say class warfare please.

JD

And dont forget Gary2 Bush cut benefits fo Vietnam Vets like my dad. He went 2 years without his medications cause of that ass monkey. If people think that repubs care about the poor, lose your job and miss a couple of morgage payments and see who will help. Most rich assholes think that people on unemployment are lazy and they could find a job if they just applied themselves. Hogwash. Most people that are unemployed are educated and have lots of valuble work experience. But there arent any jobs to be had. Thats why recent collage grads are flipping burgers or cleaning hotel rooms. Its sad whats happening to our country. But if these pigs take over the white house there will be millions of people that they cut off welfare and unemployment saying ****************************!!!

Gary2

Amen brother

Pamela

We[re toast and Washington knows it!!

Colin

Long ago, the wealthy felt connected to their home country, and if their home country was in trouble, they would do what they could to help. In the Great Depression, Rockefeller hired 75,000 workers on his own dole to build the Rockefeller Center.

For the wealthy to become what the Republicans describe ‘job creators’, they must follow Rockefeller’s example. However, too many of them hold onto their money, over 2 trillion dollars, and do nothing with the money that helps the country or the people. Even their philanthropy efforts aren’t aimed at helping either the country or the people. These efforts are more for p.r. than actual effect.

There was an article earlier this year about the wealthy. Here is the article:

President Obama’s tax plan will fail not because it’s bad policy, but because many of the wealthy can re-locate to a more friendly nation. Why run your hedge fund here if you can run it somewhere else? Computers don’t tie people like desks to a single location. Furthermore, many of the wealthy have no connection to the rest of us; Warren Buffett is one of the last of the old generation of the wealthy. He still feels a connection to his country and her people, and is motivated to do what he can to help both.

So much is in transition here. Our nation is moving from an industrialized economy to a financial-services economy. Our nation is moving from first world status to second or third world status. Our political parties are moderate positions to more extreme positions. Our natural environment is changing from sustainability to austerity. And our wealthy are becoming nation-less nomads who earn their money from the new technology and feel neither concern nor care for those outside of their circle.

I feel this is going to turn out to be a very ugly century.

Highspeedloafer

I agree with much of what you said , with one exception. If Warren Buffet loved his country so much, why hasn’t he paid his tax bill. In my opinion, he is just another manipulator, a very rich one though. If he wants to pay higher taxes to prove his love for country, why doesn’t he just shut up and pay his fair share.

Guido

I’m curious-can someone explain exactly what amount is a “fair share?” I’ve hard leftists, like Obama, saying “Fair Share” over and over for years and years. What is fair and how do I know when someone pays it? Is it all of your wealth, or only a significant part of it? (Buffet has already pledged most of his wealth to charity.)

I don’t think a graduated tax system is fair at all. First, I think it goes to the very heart of what is just in our nation. According to our founding documents, all men are created equal and we’re all supposed to be treated equally before the law.

So why do some get singled out for special attention? Seems to me a just system would be one that taxes all of us at the same %. One flat % on our income and no loopholes.

Someone smarter than me said “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” I think they were right.

When the politicians extend tax breaks to one person or business interest, they are denying tax breaks to the rest of us. That’s special treatment. That’s government picking winners and losers. I don’t think that’s fair, no matter how good it is to get green windows and electric cars or whatever. I think Solyndra showed how good the gov’t is at picking winners…

I believe everyone should be equal and pay an equal rate. With no loopholes, perhaps we could all pay a rather low rate, as opposed to all the legal wrangling and special exemptions we have to try to fit in order to get the best rate possible.

Can you imagine how liberating it would be to have a tax code that was less than 1,000 pages? I won’t pray for 500 or 300…

MIKE PAPANTONIO, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: No class warfare. This has
been a class massacre. And you know what, the millionaires and the
billionaires have won. It`s over.

All this is is an attempt at having Americans, the middle class and
poor, from digging themselves out of the rubble that have been left by the
Republicans. This isn`t class warfare. It`s a massacre.

President Obama understands that this idea of Republican shared
sacrifice is just a continuation of the story. The Republicans idea of
shared sacrifice is this, Ed: it`s where less than one tenth of one percent
of Americans control 46 trillion dollars of America`s wealth. That`s
Heidi`s America.

It`s where the bottom 50 percent of Americans control a pitiful 2.5
percent of American wealth. That`s Heidi`s America.

It`s an America right now where we have an American worker making
every one dollar for every 500 dollars that a CEO makes. That`s Heidi`s
America.

Mike Papantonio is a liberal radio talk show host. He hosts, along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the show Ring of Fire.

The person he refers to is Heidi Harris who is a conservative radio talk show host based. She hosts the Heidi Harris Show.

Guido

Michael, I think the media are making a big mistake on the Buffet thing.

When people trot out Warren Buffet’s quote about paying less than his secretary, I think they’re ignoring an important point.

Buffet is talking about the rate, not the actual amount of money. (I think some people believe Buffet is claiming he pays a smaller amount than his secretary.)

Also, I believe Buffet’s income is mainly from dividend income, not actual wages. That’s an important point because, as I understand it, dividends are earned on money that was already taxed and the dividend tax is set up to take an automatic 15% off earners in the top 25% brackets. Lower-earning investors pay only a flat 5% on their investment income. Buffet’s secretary will be paying about 30% on wages, not dividends.

Does it seem fair, in that case, to let a person keep more of their money if they’ve already paid taxes on it when they earned it the first time? If you have to hit me up two times and subject me to double jeopardy for the same money, at least give me a discount.

If Buffet personally feels like he’s getting off too easily, why doesn’t he just pay more? No one is stopping him from sending in more money. Perhaps Uncle Sam will give him a thank you for his thoughtless donation? Perhaps he thinks Uncle Sam will give his company special attention in return for his special attention???

Also, Michael, to look at it from another point of view, is it fair to have to pay so much more for the same crappy government little guys like you and I get? If I were a millionaire in this day and age, I would have a certain sense of entitlement to some special attention from my government. I’m already footing the bill for millions of others-where’s my special bonus???

No doubt, I’ll have to spend a little more on a legal donation to my congressmen and president to get the kind of government I want. I wonder how much GE have to pay to get the results they want? Seems to me they got a guy in the White House and paid no taxes last year on billions in income.

Oh, and didn’t I hear Warren Buffet’s business hasn’t paid taxes in about a decade? I read Buffet’s company has been fighting the IRS for a decade. Buffet’s statements about taxes are all rather interesting, seeing as they come from a man who says he wants to pay more, but refuses to pay them when they’re due. (could there be a quid pro quo here? Buffet wants his quo, so he makes a big BS statement for the press to eat up and spread far and wide…)

Rather look to who is backing Obama for President. I suggest the media will trash those who run against him. Seems like that has happened in the past elections where divorce proceedings had a lot to do with his getting elected. Scandals against his opponents in the media dropped that person’s election capabilities leaving Obama to reap the benefits.
I suggest looking to his political appointments as to who is backing him. It is not a nice picture. Monsanto executives in the FDA for instance.
I suggest we look for connections with the very powerful rich families. They might be backing him.
The IRS is a very powerful agency. So powerful in fact that even billionaires are scared of it. So what makes anyone think they can dissolve the agency? Yes, they can change the rules a bit. The powerful will slip something into the new rules that seems to make them pay. But the illusion will be in what they actually pay. I give that whole thing the chance of a snowball in Hell!
What would make more sense to me would be fundamental changes in the rules that would allow America to become competitive in the world. Back our currency with solid finances. Use those powerful interests to bring home the wealth where it belongs.
Well, I have just suggested we bell the cat. Now we need to find someone stupid enough to hang the bell around its neck . . .

Randome-11

He should have played the class warfare card a year ago or so if he wants to be re-elected, since he won´t fully tacle the debt crisis.

Reaganomics have been wat work for what? 30 years now? Well, it doesn´t work, taxing the rich less has not resulted in more jobs and more wealth, it have lead to the destruction of the United States, that is where it have lead to.

Companies that outsources to countries with neo-feodale wages should be barred from business in the United States, simple as that.

He’s been involved with dirty money his whole career. Look up his involvement with Tony Rezko sometime.

Don’t miss his very peculiar ties to the former Iraqi Minister of Electricity, who worked to funnel Coalition Authority funds to Rezko.

What about the Solyndra scandal? Or this recent flap over trying to force General Shelton to change his testimony so one of Obama’s cronies could get a sweetheart deal? And what about Obama’s secret lobbyist meetings with Big Pharma in the development of the healthcare bill? And how about all the other pet projects and buddies he steered money to with his stimulus bill?

Do you really think this is anything other than hype?

On the other hand, his close associates have a strange habit of cheating on their taxes. Tim Geithner should be in jail. Then there was Tom Daschle. Bill Richardson, too.

Should there really be 2 systems, 1 for big money democrats and 1 for the rest of us? One system where you get a slap on the wrist and one where you go to jail? That hardly seems like justice to me. I support equality of punishment for crimes committed-but these rascals keep getting away with it.

The IRS would be knocking my door down with guns drawn if I were cheating on my taxes. Talk about not paying your fair share.

In fact, speaking of millionaires not paying their fair share-what about Obama paying his accountant to figure out how HE could avoid paying more taxes? He avoided at least 100,000USD, if I remember correctly, in taxes with creative accounting.

Nah, he’s fighting for you and me every day.

Shorn

Of course he’ll use “class warfare” as a tactic to win the election. Why wouldn’t he? We are IN a class war and working people are having their asses handed to them. Either this country goes into overtime doing anything and everything to create living wage jobs, or there will be blood in the streets. Oh, and a tax break has never created a single job. Prove me wrong.

We’re reaching a tipping point – people aren’t going to sit idle watching the rich sucking the country dry while more and more of us are put out of our homes. The only thing worse for this country than Obama and the Tea Party would be some half-wit like Perry or Paul to get elected. I think then we would truly see cities burning.

http://www.maxkeiser.com/ Ben Dover (America)

If Americans are STUPID enough, to re-elect Obama – then, they may as well kiss America, AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, GOODBYE! NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE DUBYA WAS IN OFFICE. REMEMBER ALL THE PROMISES THAT OBUMMER MADE PRIOR TO HIS ELECTION! HE HASN’T DELIVERED ON A SINGLE ONE!

Rob Butler

Why do the Republicans always use the CLASS WARFARE theme(as if they aren’t winning)against the Dems?! Pity the poor Republicans. Of course it’s CLASS WARFARE. Those greedmongers have no class and think only of pleasing themselves. That’s why they still believe they can sell the idea of Reagan’s “trickle down” economics to all of us.